Розділ: Політика
Trump Renews Attacks on Impeachment Probe Targeting Him
U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his attacks Monday against the impeachment investigation, two days ahead of public hearings targeting him for allegedly abusing his office to help himself politically.Before observing the annual Veterans Day tribute to the U.S. military at a New York ceremony, Trump claimed on Twitter, without offering any evidence, that Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of the impeachment probe in the House of Representatives, had “doctored” transcripts of eight officials who have testified in recent weeks behind closed doors in a secure room at the U.S. Capitol.According to the transcripts, the current and former diplomatic and national security officials have detailed how Trump and his aides pressed Ukraine to launch investigations of one of his chief 2020 Democratic presidential challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.”Republicans should put out their own transcripts!” Trump demanded. Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. We haven’t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer. Republicans should put out their own transcripts! Schiff must testify as to why he MADE UP a statement from me, and read it to all!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019Trump, in a late July call, asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor,” to carry out these investigations, at a time he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid Ukraine wanted for its fight against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. Trump eventually released the assistance to Kyiv in September without Ukraine opening the investigations.The impeachment inquiry was touched off by a complaint from an anonymous government whistleblower who said he was troubled by Trump’s request to Zelenskiy for the Biden investigations, since it seemed the president was seeking the help of a foreign government in next year’s election.Trump, who has often described his call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” tweeted that the impeachment investigation should be ended and that “the Whistleblower, his lawyer and Corrupt politician Schiff should be investigated (sic) for fraud!”The lawyer for the Whistleblower takes away all credibility from this big Impeachment Scam! It should be ended and the Whistleblower, his lawyer and Corrupt politician Schiff should be investigared for fraud!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019In early 2017 as Trump assumed power, Washington attorney Mark Zaid, the whistleblower’s lawyer, tweeted that a “coup has started” and that “impeachment will follow ultimately,” later saying, “We will get rid of him, and this country is strong enough to survive even him and his supporters.”It is only the fourth time in U.S. history that impeachment hearings have been opened against a president. In the previous three times, two presidents (Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago) were impeached but acquitted in Senate trials, while a third president, Richard Nixon, resigned ahead of all-but-certain impeachment in the 1970s.As the hearings start Wednesday before Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee, two U.S. State Department officials, William Taylor and George Kent, are set to testify how Trump and his aides pressured Zelenskiy to open the investigations of the Bidens. Republicans are hoping to pinpoint any inconsistencies in their testimony and have temporarily named a staunch Trump supporter, Congressman Jim Jordan, to the panel to defend the president.Trump on Monday and Sunday complained about the impeachment hearing rules adopted by the Democratic-controlled House, saying on Twitter that Schiff “will not allow a White House lawyer, nor will he allow ANY of our requested witnesses. This is a first in due process and Congressional history!”Corrupt politician Adam Schiff wants people from the White House to testify in his and Pelosi’s disgraceful Witch Hunt, yet he will not allow a White House lawyer, nor will he allow ANY of our requested witnesses. This is a first in due process and Congressional history!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019Under the rules, Trump will be able to have a lawyer representing him when the House Judiciary Committee considers possible articles of impeachment against him in the coming weeks, and, if the full House impeaches him, at a trial in the Republican-majority Senate.But the rules do not call for Trump legal representation at the House Intelligence panel’s hearings.”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT,” Trump tweeted. “Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019Trump for weeks has denied his late July call with Zelenskiy amounted to a quid pro quo — the military aid in exchange for an investigation of the Bidens.Schiff invited Republicans to submit a list of witnesses they want to question. But Schiff has rejected the two most prominent figures on the Republican wish list: Hunter Biden and the unnamed whistleblower.Under U.S. law, the identity of inside-the-government whistleblowers alleging wrongdoing is protected from disclosure.Trump, however, has urged that the whistleblower be named and says he should be able to confront his accuser. Democrats have voiced concerns about protecting the whistleblower’s safety and note that much of what he alleged has been corroborated by government officials who heard Trump’s call or were directed to push for the Ukraine investigations of the Bidens. In addition, a rough transcript of the Trump call with Zelenskiy released by the White House quoted Trump asking the Ukrainian leader for the Biden probes.Calling in the whistleblower to testify would be “redundant and unnecessary,” said Schiff.”The committee … will not facilitate efforts by President Trump and his allies in Congress to threaten, intimidate and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm,” Schiff said in a letter to the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Congressman Devin Nunes. ” … The whistleblower has a right under laws championed by this committee to remain anonymous and to be protected from harm.”Schiff said that after weeks of behind-closed-doors testimony, his inquiry “has gathered an ever-growing body of evidence – from witnesses and documents, including the president’s own words in his July 25 call record – that not only confirms but far exceeds the initial information in the whistleblower’s complaint …. In light of the president’s threats, the individual’s appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk.”Washington Gearing Up for Public Impeachment Hearings This Week Teaser DescriptionDemocrats say the president abused power by withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on a political foeSchiff said the public impeachment hearings “will not serve as vehicles” for what he called “sham investigations into the Bidens or debunked conspiracies about 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit.”
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By Polityk | 11/12/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Buttigieg Hopes to Name 1st Female VA Secretary
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says if elected he’d like to name a woman to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs for the first time as 2020 hopefuls take aim at President Donald Trump’s record on stemming military suicide and helping female vets.On Veterans Day, several candidates rolled out proposals to meet the needs of America’s 20 million former service members.Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said female veterans and service members have been neglected, including on concerns about sexual harassment and women’s health. Women are the military’s fastest-growing subgroup.“I think leadership plays a huge role so absolutely I’d seek to name a woman to lead VA,” Buttigieg, a former Navy intelligence officer, said in an interview with The Associated Press. His comments went a step beyond his 21-page wide-ranging plan released on Monday.
“The president has let veterans down,” Buttigieg said.Of the Cabinet and Cabinet-level roles, four have never been held by a woman: Veterans Affairs, Defense, Treasury and White House chief of staff. Buttigieg says he’d take a close look at appointing a female defense secretary as well.Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said he would seek to build on current gains for vets that were started under the Obama-Biden administration, such as stemming homelessness and improving mental health care.“Joe has a long record of support for veterans and our military families,” press secretary Jamal Brown said. “Bringing down the high rate of suicide among our military and veterans will be a top priority for a Biden administration.”In a dig at Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video on Monday highlighting his role in working with the late Republican Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero, to pass legislation that included the Veterans Choice program in 2014.
Trump routinely takes credit for being the first to enact the Choice program, ignoring the fact that it was signed into law by President Barack Obama. What Trump got done was an expansion of the program achieved by McCain and Sanders.That expanded program, one of Trump’s signature accomplishments, seeks to steer more veterans over the next decade to private-sector doctors outside the VA.
Sanders, a former chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee who voted against Trump’s plan, says the expanded program goes too far in its investments in the private sector, rather than core VA health care , which many veterans view as better suited to treat battlefield injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Sanders joins Buttigieg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in urging increases in doctor pay to attract top VA candidates and fill 49,000 VA positions that have sat vacant as the Trump administration promoted private health care options.Sanders said he would fill those vacancies in his first year as president and provide at least $62 billion in new funding to repair and modernize VA facilities to provide cutting-edge care.“We will not dismantle or privatize the VA. We will expand and improve the VA,” Sanders said Monday.Buttigieg told the AP that he would look at rolling back some of the Trump administration’s rules expanding Choice.
All the Democratic candidates who have articulated veterans’ plans call for added funding and training for suicide prevention. Buttigieg specifically proposes a new 24/7 VA “concierge” service aimed at guiding at-risk vets into mental health care.
Currently, about 20 veterans die by suicide each day, a rate basically unchanged during the Trump administration. Trump earlier this year directed a Cabinet-level task force to develop a broader roadmap for veterans’ suicide prevention, due out next spring.Buttigieg, like Warren, would seek to improve responses to sexual assault in the military by shifting prosecution from military commanders to independent prosecutors. He also wants to put particular focus on stemming homelessness among women vets, many of whom may have experienced sexual trauma .
He pointed to his seven-month deployment in Afghanistan in 2014 and watching the impact a female general had “culturally” on the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.“When a leadership body is more gender diverse, it makes better decisions. So I would absolutely be looking at that,” Buttigieg told the AP. He’s previously pledged to appoint women to at least 50% of his Cabinet positions.While veterans overall have strongly backed Trump throughout his presidency, views vary widely by party, gender and age, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of 2018 midterm voters. In particular, younger veterans and women generally were more skeptical of Trump, who received multiple draft deferments to avoid going to Vietnam.
A study released by the VA earlier this year found 1 in 4 women veterans using VA health care reported inappropriate comments by male veterans on VA grounds, raising concerns they may delay or miss their treatments. The VA also has rebuffed efforts by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and other groups to change the VA motto, which some vets believe is outdated and excludes women. That motto refers to the VA’s mission to fulfill a promise of President Abraham Lincoln “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”
Buttigieg said he would direct his VA secretary to change that motto to “fairly represent the diversity of service members and veterans.”Currently, about 10% of the nation’s veterans are female. In the U.S. military forces, about 17% of those enlisted are women, up from about 2% in 1973.
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By Polityk | 11/11/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Mexican Immigrant Fights for DACA as Court Ruling Nears
A Mexican immigrant fighting President Donald Trump’s attempt to end a program shielding young immigrants from deportation says he is nervous about the case finally being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Martin Batalla Vidal is a lead plaintiff in one of the cases to preserve the Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, and has seen his name splashed in legal documents since 2016, when he first sued in New York.The 29-year-old certified nursing assistant at a rehabilitation clinic for traumatic brain injury in Queens, New York, has described the legal journey since then as stressful, with people sending him hateful messages. He has had to sacrifice days at work so he could go to protests, press conferences and meetings with attorneys.
Even with his worries, Batalla Vidal is hopeful immigrants like him will be able to stay in the country.
“I don’t know what is going to happen,” said Batalla Vidal, who lives with his mother, two brothers and a dog in an apartment at the border of Queens and Brooklyn. “Whatever the outcome is, we know that we have fought hard for it and we will continue fighting. I am trying to be positive.”
FILE – The U.S. Supreme Court building at dusk on Capitol Hill in Washington.The nation’s highest court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case Tuesday.
The program protects about 700,000 people, known as “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families that overstayed visas.
With the attempted elimination of DACA, there was renewed pressure in Congress to pass the DREAM Act, or The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, a series of never-passes proposals to protect young immigrants vulnerable to deportation. Opponents say the law rewards people for breaking the law, encourages illegal immigration and hurts American workers. FILE – Protesters demonstrate against the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, May 15, 2018.Trump ordered an end to DACA in 2017, but federal courts in different states, including New York because of Batalla Vidal’s lawsuit, blocked him from ending it immediately.
The protections remain in effect at least until the U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision, which will likely be in 2020. Participants of the program can renew their status, but no new applicants can sign up.
The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 to provide social security numbers, work permits and protection from deportation to people who, in many cases, have no memory of any home other than the U.S.
The Trump administration argues that the program is unlawful because former President Barack Obama did not have the authority to adopt it in the first place.
Batalla Vidal initially sued when a federal court in a separate case ruled that DACA permits could not be extended for a third year, as the Obama administration wanted. Now he’s part of the legal fight over DACA’s very existence.
When Trump ordered the termination of the program, lawyers for Batalla Vidal amended his original lawsuit to fight the termination and added more individual plaintiffs.
A federal judge ruled in their favor. The U.S. Supreme Court in June agreed to hear the administration’s appeal of Batalla Vidal’s and other cases from around the country.
On Monday, Batalla Vidal planned to arrive to Washington, D.C., in a bus with his mother to join representatives from colleges, civil rights groups, Democratic-led states and individuals who also sued. On Tuesday, he will sit at the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments.
“Nobody thought we would get this far,” he said after speaking last week in a conference at LaGuardia Community College, where he studies criminal justice as an undergraduate student. “I have my family, my community, which has had my back since day one.”
Batalla Vidal crossed the Mexico border when he was 7 years old with his mother and a brother. He has two other brothers who are U.S. citizens.
After going to high school in Brooklyn, he said he worked making deliveries at a deli and later at a gym to save for college, and later on to support his single mother who has thyroid and osteoarthritis. Batalla Vidal also joined Make the Road New York, a nonprofit group that defends immigrant rights. Lawyers from the organization, along with the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic of Yale Law School and the National Immigration Law Center filed the 2016 lawsuit.
“His bravery and commitment to justice for our communities throughout this legal fight have been admirable and captured the attention of people all over, thousands of whom sent him messages of support after he received hate-filled messages for suing Trump,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Martin is fighting for the freedom to thrive and be himself in this country, which is his home.”
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By Polityk | 11/11/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Assails Impeachment Hearings as ‘Disgraceful’
U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new attack Sunday on this week’s impeachment hearings that target him, calling them “disgraceful” and complaining that Democrats are blocking witnesses that Republicans want to question.He said “corrupt politician” Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading the impeachment effort, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want White House officials to testify in a “disgraceful Witch Hunt.”Yet he said on Twitter that Schiff “will not allow a White House lawyer, nor will he allow ANY of our requested witnesses. This is a first in due process and Congressional history!”Corrupt politician Adam Schiff wants people from the White House to testify in his and Pelosi’s disgraceful Witch Hunt, yet he will not allow a White House lawyer, nor will he allow ANY of our requested witnesses. This is a first in due process and Congressional history!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019Under the impeachment hearing rules adopted by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, Trump will be able to have a lawyer representing him when the House Judiciary Committee considers possible articles of impeachment against him in the coming weeks and, if the full House impeaches him, at a trial in the Republican-majority Senate.But the rules do not call for Trump legal representation at the House Intelligence Committee hearings that start Wednesday. Two U.S. State Department officials, William Taylor and George Kent, are set to testify that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations to benefit him politically at a time he was withholding $391 million in U.S. military aid that Kyiv desperately wanted to help it fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
Public Impeachment Hearings Start This Week in Washington video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkPublic Impeachment Hearings Start This Week in Washington”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT,” Trump tweeted. “Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019Trump for weeks has denied his late July call with Zelenskiy amounted to a quid pro quo – the military aid in exchange for an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory about Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 U.S. election that Trump won. Trump released the military aid in September without Ukraine launching the investigations.Schiff invited Republicans to submit a list of witnesses they want to question. But Schiff has rejected the two most prominent figures on the Republican wish list: Hunter Biden and the unnamed whistleblower who touched off the Democrats’ impeachment effort by raising concerns about Trump’s request to Zelenskiy in the July call.Under U.S. law, the identity of inside-the-government whistleblowers alleging wrongdoing is protected from disclosure.Trump, however, has urged that the whistleblower be named and says he should be able to confront his accuser. Democrats have voiced concerns about protecting the whistleblower’s safety and note that much of what he alleged has been corroborated by government officials who heard Trump’s call or were directed to push for the Ukraine investigation of the Bidens. In addition, a rough transcript of the Trump call with Zelenskiy released by the White House quoted Trump asking for “a favor” .Schiff said calling in the whistleblower to testify would be “redundant and unnecessary.””The committee … will not facilitate efforts by President Trump and his allies in Congress to threaten, intimidate and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm,” Schiff said in a letter to the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Congressman Devin Nunes. ” … The whistleblower has a right under laws championed by this committee to remain anonymous and to be protected from harm.”Schiff said that after weeks of behind-closed-doors testimony, his inquiry “has gathered an ever-growing body of evidence — from witnesses and documents, including the president’s own words in his July 25 call record — that not only confirms but far exceeds the initial information in the whistleblower’s complaint …. In light of the president’s threats, the individual’s appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk.”Schiff said the public impeachment hearings “will not serve as vehicles” for what he called “sham investigations into the Bidens or debunked conspiracies about 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit.”
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By Polityk | 11/11/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Public Impeachment Hearings Start This Week in Washington
The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee moves to public hearings this week in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Democrats say the president abused power by withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on a political foe. Republicans contend Trump has done nothing to be impeached. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports
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By Polityk | 11/11/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
In memoir, Haley Alleges Disloyalty Among Some on Trump Team
President Donald Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley , alleges in her upcoming memoir that two administration officials who were ultimately pushed out by Trump once tried to get her to join them in opposing some of his policies.In “With All Due Respect,” Haley said then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-White House chief of staff John Kelly told her that they were trying to “save the country.” Haley writes that she was “shocked” by the request, made during a closed-door meeting, and thought they were only trying to put their own imprint on his policies.“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote. “It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing. … Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president’s decisions was because, if he didn’t, people would die.”The former South Carolina governor said the meeting lasted more than an hour and that they never raised the issue to her again.Haley’s book comes out Tuesday. The Associated Press purchased an early copy.“Instead of saying that to me, they should’ve been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan,” Haley wrote. “It should’ve been, ‘Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing.’ But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.”Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018. Later, Tillerson said the president was “undisciplined” and did not like to read briefing reports. Trump countered, calling Tillerson “dumb as a rock.”When Kelly was chief of staff, Trump chafed at the orderly processes the general imposed on his freewheeling style and White House operations at large. Trump let him go in December 2018.When asked to respond to Haley’s book, Kelly told CBS’ “Sunday Morning” that “if by resistance and stalling, she means putting a staff process in place … to ensure the (president) knew all the pros and cons of what policy decision he might be contemplating so he could make an informed decision, then guilty as charged.”
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By Polityk | 11/10/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
‘Lost Boy’ of Sudan Wins New York State District Councilor Seat
He was once called a Lost Boy but today, his official title is Councilor-Elect.Chol Majok won the 3rd District Common Council seat in Syracuse, New York, this week, becoming the first former refugee in city history to do so, according to Onondaga County’s Board of Elections.“One of the things that I am certain about is when you are not at the table where policy and decisions are being made, you are not counted, you are not part of that narrative,” said Majok.Majok arrived in Syracuse 18 years ago with other Lost Boys of Sudan — a group of 20,000 boys who were displaced or orphaned during the second Sudanese civil war in which about 2 million were killed. He was 16 years old and anxious to begin building his life.He lived in foster homes until he turned 18, and although he was there for just two years, he says the conditions he experienced in the system changed his life.“They are conditions that people in a first world country should not be in. So coupled with where I came from and what I saw, I just wanted something different,” he said.Chol Majok is pictured with his wife and children in a photo from his Facebook campaign page.Syracuse’s poverty rate is among the highest in the United States. About 32.6% of the population lives below the poverty line, according the latest figures by the U.S. Census Bureau.Crime, gun violence and high poverty rates once again became part of his reality in his newly adopted country. “As somebody that came from that conditions you ask yourself, what is going on here. It seems like everywhere I go there is this poverty that never separates from me and its only right to say you know what I can’t just stand by and watch, let me try to be part of the solution,” said Majok.Majok’s mother died when he was 2 years old. His father, who died during the war, fought for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army which was originally founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant in the war. Now a husband and father of five, Majok earned a Master’s degree in Political Science and is now pursuing a doctorate in Executive Leadership.A seat on the council is considered a part time job, so Majok says he will continue with his other work with Alliance for Economic Inclusion, an employment program that helps people find and keep their jobs by offering services like transportation, child care or interpersonal skills.Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said Majok’s win is “going to be a boon for the growing refugee community here in central New York and specifically the city of Syracuse.”“They see this as a victory for them and they now have a voice on the city council that will cater to their specific needs,” said Czarny.Majok plans to focus on service delivery in Syracuse, particularly with snow plowing. But he says he also wants to be a bridge between law enforcement and the community, who he says doesn’t have trust with police officers.He says he also hopes his win will inspire other immigrants.“I didn’t realize that when I got into the race until toward the end of it when so many of my brother and sisters start calling everywhere and just encouraged me to keep going. Then I realized it was bigger than me,” he said.
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By Polityk | 11/09/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
House Democrats Take Trump Impeachment Inquiry Public
House Democrats will launch a new phase in the impeachment investigation of U.S. President Donald Trump next week with a round of public testimony from former administration officials. Those witnesses will provide a detailed picture of Trump’s alleged invitation of foreign interference into the 2020 presidential election. Newly released transcripts from the closed door testimony preview could mark a pivotal week in the Trump presidency.Weeks of witness testimony behind closed doors on Capitol Hill are about to go public. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is leading the open hearings that Democrats hope will make a case to the American people for the impeachment of President Trump.Former Ambassador William Taylor leaves a closed door meeting after testifying as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 22, 2019.The first to testify will be one of the Democrats’ key witnesses, Ambassador William Taylor. Schiff expressed his support for Taylor.“Someone who is I think performing another vital service for the country in relating the facts that came to his attention — the very disturbing facts that came to his attention,” Schiff said.Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, has already told House lawmakers it was clear U.S. security assistance to Ukraine was tied to that country’s cooperation in an investigation into Trump’s political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter.Also testifying next week, State Department official George Kent and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who will tell lawmakers of efforts to subvert traditional U.S. foreign policy channels in favor of Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer.Republicans say the president’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy should be the focus.FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump face reporters during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.“I trust the call. I trust President Zelenskiy and President Trump. And I trust the fact that the Ukrainians didn’t know that aid had been held and the Ukrainians did nothing to get it released, when it was released. Those are the fundamental facts, but we got all this, all this, other noise that Mr. Schiff wants to stir up that isn’t fundamentally critical to what actually took place,” Jordan said.Trump has called the House impeachment process unfair.“They shouldn’t be having public hearings. This is a hoax. This is just like the Russian witch hunt,” Trump said.House Democrats are following a similar process used in the impeachment inquiries of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, said Brookings Institution analyst Elaine Kamarck.“The impeachment process, at this point in time, is like a grand jury process. What they’re doing now is they’re just gathering evidence. They’re going to make charges. And obviously House Republicans will have the chance to rebut the charges,” Kamarck said.Charges in the form of articles of impeachment could come as early as December and would almost certainly pass the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The resulting trial in the Republican-majority Senate would likely not be successful — keeping Trump in office.
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By Polityk | 11/09/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bloomberg to Pass on Iowa, NH, Focus on Super Tuesday States
Michael Bloomberg plans to skip early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire if he launches a presidential bid and instead focus his efforts on the crush of states that vote on Super Tuesday and beyond. It’s a strategy that acknowledges the limitations of entering the race at this late stage and the opportunities afforded by the billionaire’s vast personal wealth.Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson says other candidates already have a big head start in the first four states to vote — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — and Bloomberg needs to be realistic about where he can make up ground.”If we run, we are confident we can win in states voting on Super Tuesday and beyond, where we will start on an even footing,” Wolfson said. Fifteen states and American Samoa vote in the March 3 contests, with nearly a quarter of primary delegates up for grabs.Bloomberg qualified Friday to get on the ballot in Alabama, one of the Super Tuesday states. His team is also making plans to file in Arkansas, which has a Tuesday deadline.Bloomberg’s candidacy has the potential to upend the Democratic race less than three months before primary voting begins. The billionaire businessman initially ruled out a 2020 run, but began to reconsider in recent weeks, citing concerns about the ability of the current crop of contenders to defeat President Donald Trump.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters during a rally, in New York, Oct. 19, 2019.Bloomberg himself has called prominent Democrats to alert them to his likely run, and his staff is scrambling to meet fast-approaching primary filing deadlines.Among those Bloomberg has reached out to: Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who remains popular in the state. Vilsack told The Associated Press that Bloomberg called him Thursday evening and left a voicemail indicating he plans to run.”He is in,” Vilsack said of Bloomberg’s message.Despite the outreach to Vilsack, advisers say Bloomberg would not make a serious play for votes in Iowa and the other early states. Other candidates in the crowded field have spent months courting voters there and building campaign operations.The early states offer just a small percentage of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. But victories there typically give candidates crucial momentum that helps carry them into bigger states with more delegates on the line.Bloomberg is calculating that he could build an advantage in those states now with his ability to quickly pour money into staff, television advertising and other campaign operations while other candidates are competing elsewhere.Bill Carrick, a veteran Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, said he doesn’t think skipping the early voting states is ever a viable strategy.”I don’t think you can just hopscotch around the calendar to suit your own political purposes,” Carrick said. “You skip the early states, you’re going to have a difficult time. I don’t see any evidence that strategy ever works.”FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Oct. 23, 2019.Bloomberg has spent the past few weeks talking with prominent Democrats about the state of the race, expressing concerns about the steadiness of former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign and the rise of liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, according to people with knowledge of those discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to relay details of private conversations.Biden, campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, welcomed Bloomberg to the race.”Michael’s a solid guy, and let’s see where it goes,” he told reporters. “I have no problem with him getting in the race.”Bloomberg’s moves come as the Democratic race enters a crucial phase. Biden’s front-runner status has been vigorously challenged by Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are flush with cash from small-dollar donors. But both are viewed by some Democrats as too liberal to win in a general election faceoff with Trump.FILE – Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks during the fourth U.S. Democratic presidential candidates 2020 election debate in Westerville, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2019.Trump told reporters Friday that Bloomberg might well spend “a lot of money” but “doesn’t have the magic to do well.” Trump suggested he’d easily beat the former mayor and fellow billionaire.”Little Michael will fail,” Trump said at the White House, adding, “There is nobody I’d rather run against than Little Michael, that I can tell you.”Despite a historically large field, some Democrats anxious about defeating Trump have been looking for other options. Former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick have quietly had conversations with supporters urging them to consider a run, but neither appears likely to get in the race.Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent who registered as a Democrat last year, has flirted with a presidential run before but ultimately backed down, including in 2016. He endorsed Hillary Clinton in that race and, in a speech at the Democratic Party convention, pummeled Trump as a con who has oversold his business successes.Bloomberg instead plunged his efforts and his money into gun control advocacy and climate change initiatives. He again looked seriously at a presidential bid earlier this year, traveling to early voting states and conducting extensive polling, but decided not to run in part because of Biden’s perceived strength.
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By Polityk | 11/09/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Somali Election Winners Urge Women Back Home to Take Up Politics
Two Somali-American women who won local elections this week are calling for full participation of women in Somalia’s politics, peace and development efforts.Voters on Tuesday elected Nadia Mohamed for an at-large seat in St. Louis Park, a western suburb of Minneapolis, in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, and chose Safiya Khalid to represent a ward in Lewiston, in the northeastern state of Maine.Both ran as Democrats and will be the first Somali immigrants on their respective councils. Both also are 23 and are black, hijab-wearing Muslims.The two new city council members are urging women in Somalia to follow their path.“I was elected with respect being a woman, a young, a Muslim, and hijab-wearing. So that, I would like to see Somalia doing the same because a woman can do sometimes better what a man can do,” said Mohamed.“I would like to send a call to Somali women in Somalia, saying that they can do whatever they want, regardless of the challenges they face from the men who hold the country’s politics in monopoly,” Khalid told VOA Somali.In Somalia’s conservative society, women’s participation in politics has have traditionally been low, and a controversial topic.Khadiijo Mohamed Dirie, Somalia’s minister of youth and sports, said the success of young Somali politicians in the United States and Europe is a reminder of how women can be empowered in Somali society.Right now, she says, female politicians as young as Mohamed and Khalid would have zero chance of being elected to public office in Somalia.“Women rarely envision a position of a higher political leadership in our male-dominated social system,” Dirie told VOA. “Those who are successful in the U.S and Europe politics got an opportunity of living with a developed society in a political maturity.”Somalia’s provisional constitution gives women 30 percent quota in both houses of the parliament. However, women currently make up less than a quarter of parliamentarians.
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By Polityk | 11/09/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ivanka Trump: Whistleblower’s Motives More Important Than ID
Ivanka Trump on Friday echoed her father’s view that the House impeachment investigation is an attempt to overturn the 2016 election. But, in an interview with The Associated Press, she parted ways with President Donald Trump by calling the identity of the impeachment whistleblower not particularly relevant.'' come forward.” But Ivanka Trump said the person’s motives were more important, though she declined to speculate on what they may have been. Lack of ‘firsthand information’
The Republican president and some of his allies lately have been pressing the news media to publicize the whistleblower's name. Trump has also tweeted for the individual to
The whistleblower shouldn't be a substantive part of the conversation,'' she told the AP, saying the persondid not have firsthand information.”
Of the individual’s identity, she added that to me, it's not particularly relevant aside from what the motivation behind all of this was.'' overturning the results of the 2016 election.” House Democrats counter that the inquiry is about whether Trump abused his office by putting his political interests ahead of those of the nation.
In a wide-ranging, 25-minute interview, Ivanka Trump also addressed her family's criticism of Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, whether she wants four more years in the White House and the possible future sale of her family's landmark Washington hotel. Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, tours a Moroccan aviation facility, the Specialized Institute in Aircraft Aeronautics and Aircraft Logistics, Nov. 8, 2019, in Casablanca, Morocco.She said she shares her father's oft-repeated view that the impeachment investigation is about
Basically since the election this has been the experience that our administration and our family has been having,'' she said of persistent criticism of the president.Rather than wait, under a year, until the people can decide for themselves based on his record and based on his accomplishments, this new effort has, has commenced.
But to us, it's really been like this from the beginning,'' she said. The president put forth a transcript,” she said, referring to a rough account of the president’s July phone conversation with Ukraine’s president.
Asked about the central thrust of the inquiry, which is that her father tried to pressure a foreign government to investigate his political foes and used military aid as leverage, she batted away the question. It's all in the 'transcript'
So everything is in the transcript.'' I think when Americans are winning, we’re feeling great, so I wouldn’t consider it a low point,” she said.
She said she hasn't been reading transcripts of the depositions current and former administration officials have given to House impeachment investigators.
Ivanka Trump also said she doesn't see impeachment as a low point for the president. She said her father is helping all Americans.
I think Americans are prospering like never before.'' enemies and spies” who surrounded him and added that
She noted that the whistleblower was not among administration officials who heard the president ask Ukraine's leader during a July 25 telephone conversation to investigate Biden, a former vice president who's a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to challenge Trump.
While her brothers Don Jr. and Eric have been vocal critics of the impeachment inquiry, Ivanka Trump has largely stayed out of the discussion. She recently tweeted a quote from Thomas Jefferson about thesome things never change, dad.'' Example of LincolnIn the interview, she again placed her father in august company when it comes to being the target of criticism, saying,This has been the experience of most.”
Abraham Lincoln was famously, even within his own Cabinet, surrounded by people who were former political adversaries,'' she said. created wealth as a derivative” of public service, while her family had made its money in business before her father became president.
She rejected any suggestion that her own family has been profiting off the presidency, even as President Trump and his allies have criticized the involvement of Biden's son with a Ukrainian oil venture when Biden was vice president.
Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration's diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son. Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, leaves an event at the Palais des Congres, Nov. 8, 2019, in Rabat, Morocco. Trump is in Morocco promoting a global economic program for women.Still, Ivanka Trump said the Bidens had
Good-government groups, however, have criticized the president for unethically mixing official business with promotion of his own interests.
Trump is the first president in modern history who has not separated himself from his business holdings. He makes frequent trips to his for-profit golf clubs, collects dues at his members-only properties and hosts fundraisers and foreign delegations at hotels that bear his family’s name.
A New York state judge this week ordered Trump to pay $2 million to an array of charities as a fine for misusing his own charitable foundation to further his political and business interests. The penalty came after Trump admitted to a series of abuses outlined in a lawsuit brought against him last year by the New York attorney general’s office. Hotel sale
Ivanka Trump said she hasn’t been involved in discussions about the possible sale of the president’s landmark Washington hotel after nearly three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency. She led the acquisition and development of the hotel she called my baby,'' a few blocks from the White House. should satisfy the critics.”
But she said a possible future sale
She is wrapping up a three-day visit to Morocco, where she has been promoting a U.S. program to help empower women in developing countries, including by encouraging governments to change laws and practices that prohibit them from owning property.
She was warmly received in rural Morocco by women who had recently bought or inherited land, with one woman kissing her hands. Morocco recently updated its land rights laws, and Ivanka Trump on Thursday witnessed the signing of documents to implement the changes.
In the AP interview, Ivanka Trump said she had yet to decide on what role she will play in her father’s re-election campaign.
On the question of whether she also wants another four more years at the White House, the mother of three said the answer would largely depend on the needs of her children.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Campaign Launching Black Outreach Effort For 2020
During the 2016 campaign, candidate Donald Trump stood in front of largely white crowds and asked black voters to consider, “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Four years later, the president has a new message for black voters: Look what I’ve delivered.
Trump and his campaign on Friday will be launching a new “Black Voices for Trump” outreach initiative in Atlanta on Friday dedicated to “recruiting and activating Black Americans in support of President Trump,” according to the campaign. Much of that effort will focus on highlighting ways that African Americans have benefited from the Trump economy, according to advisers.
“Imagine the kind of results with four more years of winning,” said senior campaign adviser Katrina Pierson.
That prediction is met with skepticism from critics, however, given Trump’s consistently dismal approval rating with black voters, who overwhelmingly disapprove of the job he’s doing.
Trump has spent much of the last four years engaged in racially charged attacks, going after minority members of Congress, claiming “no human being” would want to live in rat “infested,” majority-minority Baltimore and claiming that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the deadly Charlottesville protest against white supremacists.
“I think black Americans are not the audience for these outreach efforts,” said Theodore Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who is an expert in politics. He said the appeal appears to be more about motivating Trump’s existing voter base. While Trump might be able to maintain the low level of black support he received in 2016, or perhaps expand it by one or two points, he sees little evidence the president can change many minds.
“I think this is not going to move the needle at all,” Johnson said.
In 2016, 6% of black voters supported Trump, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of people who participated in its polls and were confirmed to have voted. There is no indication his support is growing. Polling shows that African Americans continue to be overwhelmingly negative in their assessments of the president’s performance, with his approval hovering around 1 in 10 over the course of his presidency, according to Gallup.
Indeed, in 2018, 92% of black women and 87% of black men supported Democrats in midterm congressional races, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters nationwide.
Yet Trump’s campaign dismissed the numbers, insisting the campaign has seen favorable movement and arguing the president can increase his margins with black voters by bringing new people into the fold.
“The polls have never been favorable for Trump, and the only poll that matters is on Election Day,” Pierson said.
The campaign has launched similar coalitions for women and Latinos.Darrell Scott, a black Ohio pastor and a longtime supporter of the president who will be part of the new coalition and attend Friday’s event, said that in 2015 and 2016, supporters trying to sell Trump to black voters could only point forward to share things they anticipated from Trump. Democrats, meanwhile, were warning that a Trump victory would be devastating for African Americans. Scott said someone once approached him at a gas station and said, not in jest, that if Trump won, “we’d all be going back to Africa.”
“Now that it’s 2020, we’re able to point backwards and to some very definitive accomplishments that the president has done,” Scott said. “He delivered on promises he didn’t even make.”
The campaign points to a list of achievements, including passage of bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation, which Trump signed into law last year, along with his ongoing support for opportunity zones in urban areas and new investments in historically black colleges.
Advisers also point to a series of economic gains, including the fact that black unemployment hit a record low last year, with fewer blacks living in poverty. But Trump and his campaign also have a tendency to exaggerate the gains, giving Trump credit for trends that were years in the making, seizing on momentary upticks, cherry-picking favorable statistics and ignoring more troubling ones, such as black home ownership and net worth.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass, D-Calif., said Thursday that contrary to Trump’s claims, in the three years of his presidency, African Americans have lost a lot.
“He has never had support from African Americans, but what we know about the president is that he will lie and say that he has,” said Bass, who noted that Trump rarely appears before black audiences.“He has to identify a handful of African Americans and take them with him wherever he goes,” she said.If he were any other Republican incumbent who inherited declining unemployment numbers and was able to sustain them, Trump would have a legitimate case to make to black voters, said Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton. But “because of some of his racial pronouncements … I think a significant percentage of African Americans are completely turned off.”
A September AP-NORC poll found that only roughly 3 in 10 Americans say the things Trump has done as president have been good for African Americans. And just 4% of African Americans said they think Trump’s actions have had a positive impact on African Americans in general, while 81% said they think they’ve been bad.
Yet even if he can’t win over black voters, some suspect that’s not the point. As long as the campaign can keep on-the-fence voters from casting their ballots for the eventual Democratic nominee, the campaign will be helping Trump inch closer to a second victory.
Some analysts have pointed to a precipitous drop in black turnout in 2016 as one of the reasons Trump beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who was far less popular _ especially among black men _than former President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 60% of non-Hispanic blacks voted in 2016, versus about 67% in 2012. And that drop was seen in cities with significant African American populations in critical swing states that helped Trump eke out a victory.
“I do think the main objective is to discourage turnout,” said Johnson. “I absolutely think this is about creating doubt in black voters’ minds about the Democratic nominee” so people feel like “there’s almost no one worth voting for.”
And he said that fears were growing it might work.
“There is a pretty tangible fear among black Americans that Trump is going to win again because black turnout won’t be enough to mute the white turnout,” he said. “There’s a sense that in 2020 he’s going to win again.”
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Comedian Says Roger Stone Pressed Him to Lie About Contacts
A comedian and former talk show host is telling jurors in the Roger Stone trial that the political operative pressured him into backing up lies he told Congress.Randy Credico says Stone pressed him to “go along” with a false account of the operative’s contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.The testimony Friday is damaging to Stone as he faces a federal trial on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering.Credico has occasionally provoked laughter in court and warnings from the judge. He says Stone used references from the movie “Godfather” to intimidate him into backing up Stone’s testimony to Congress.Stone is a confidant of President Donald Trump who claimed he had inside information that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Billionaire Media Mogul Michael Bloomberg Weighs Joining Democratic Race
Another Democrat may soon be joining the 2020 race for the White House.Former New York City Mayor and billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg is expected to file paperwork to run in the Alabama Democratic primary — a state which has an early deadline for qualifying for the ballot.Bloomberg has not made a final decision. But staffers say he is “increasingly concerned” that the current crop of Democratic contenders “is not well positioned” to beat U.S. President Donald Trump next November.”If Mike runs, he would offer a new choice to Democrats, built on a unique record running America’s biggest city, building businesses from scratch and taking on some of America’s toughest challenges as a high-impact philanthropist,” Bloomberg spokesman Howard Wolfson said.Bloomberg is a Republican turned Independent who endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.He was New York mayor from 2002 until 2013 and is familiar with fellow New Yorker Trump, whom Bloomberg regards as a “dangerous demagogue” who exaggerates his business success.Bloomberg heads up a financial services empire whose holdings include television and radio networks and magazines focusing on financial advice.If he enters the race, he would likely join the Democratic field as a moderate. Of the top four candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are liberal progressives. Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are both considered to be more to the center.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Raises Security Concerns Over Chinese-Owned TikTok
The social media application, TikTok, is booming in popularity especially with kids who use it to share short, usually funny videos. But TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is owned by China, and this is raising concerns by U.S. lawmakers worried about the security of the app’s American users. In Washington, Esha Sarai has more.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Gun Control Advocates Tout Virginia Election Results
Pledges to reduce America’s epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings helped propel Democrats to victory in Tuesday’s Virginia elections, as the party won control of the mid-Atlantic state’s General Assembly for the first time in two decades. The apparent success of Democrats’ pro-gun control message in Virginia is seen by some as a sign of an emerging national consensus on a thorny topic that has long-divided the nation. VOA’s Brian Padden has more.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sessions, an Alabama Icon, Faces Uncertain Path to Senate
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to reclaim his old Senate seat from Alabama, where he’s been a conservative icon and dominant vote-getter since the 1990s.But it’s already clear that President Donald Trump’s enmity toward him, along with an established field of competitors, means he’ll have to battle his way to the Republican nomination.
And early indications are that he may not have robust help from former GOP Senate colleagues, either.
“The people in Alabama will figure this out,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told The Associated Press on Thursday when asked if it’s a good idea for Sessions to run. “We do want to get that seat back, and I’m hopeful we will.”Several knowledgeable Republicans told the AP that Sessions, 72, who held the seat for two decades, plans to announce Thursday that he’ll run for the GOP Senate nomination.
FILE – Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., speaks Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 10, 2019.Sessions was senator until becoming Trump’s first attorney general in 2017. Democrat Doug Jones won the seat from the deep-red state in a special election later that year, defeating Republican Roy Moore, the right-wing lightning rod who faced allegations of sexual misconduct.Jones is the most vulnerable Senate Democrat facing reelection next year. Both sides see the battle over the Alabama seat as crucial as Republicans fight to retain the majority in the chamber, which they now control 53-47.Trump turned on Sessions because Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russia’s connections with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Though Sessions was the first senator to back Trump’s upstart campaign and worked to champion conservative causes as attorney general, the president frequently raged at him, tweeting explicit attacks on Sessions, sometimes refusing to say his name aloud in meetings and declaring that picking him for the Cabinet was his biggest regret in office.
And while politicians, operatives and analysts expect Sessions to become an immediate front-runner for the GOP nomination, the big unknown is how Trump and his Alabama supporters will react.Sessions has kept a low profile since leaving office but Trump’s anger has not cooled, as he has still been known to disparage the former attorney general in private conversations, according to a White House official and a Republican close to the West Wing who are not authorized to speak publicly about the discussions.
When rumors picked up that Sessions may run for his old seat, Trump expressed unhappiness at the prospect and mused about campaigning against his former friend, the people said.
“If Trump takes on Sessions, I don’t know what happens,” Marty Connors, a former chair of the Alabama Republican Party, said in an interview.Reaction from Republican politiciansSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is close to Trump, said Sessions was “a great senator” but said he would stay out of the race. FILE – Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters after a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2019.”Jeff knows what he’s getting into,” Graham said. “The campaign’s going to be a lot about what President Trump said about Jeff Sessions. I’m sure he’s ready to handle that.”Some Republicans are already worried that Sessions’ entry into the race could make it easier for Moore to make it to a runoff election, which would be required if no candidate wins a majority.
Sessions’ candidacy could further divide the vote of Republicans who oppose Moore.
Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would support Sessions.”He’s a man of integrity and, of course, he’ll have to run his own race and, you know, that’s up to the people of Alabama, but I believe he’ll be a formidable candidate,” Shelby said.Candidates already contending for the nomination include former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Bradley Byrne. Both are already criticizing Sessions of insufficiently defending Trump.
Jones has already run social media fundraising ads, with a photo of Sessions next to McConnell with the caption, “Too extreme. Too divisive.”Reaction from Alabama votersRepublican voters in Alabama expressed mixed opinions Thursday.
Ken Brown, a 77-year-old retired Air Force colonel from Cullman County, has supported Sessions in the past, but won’t this time.
“I’ve been a big supporter of his for a long time, but I think his day is done,” Brown said. “Before he runs again and asks for the voters’ support, he owes the voters of Alabama a full explanation of what happened between him and the president,” Brown said.
Brenda Horn, an accountant, said Sessions will get her vote, because “he was and will be a wonderful senator.”
“He is a man of great integrity and that is something we are lacking in government,” Horn said.
“I hope it would be the best thing for him. I know it would be the best thing for the citizens of Alabama,” Horn said of Sessions returning to the Senate.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP: Steyer Aide Offered Money for Endorsements
A top aide to Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer in Iowa has privately offered campaign contributions to local politicians in exchange for endorsing his White House bid, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
The overtures from Pat Murphy, a former state House speaker who is serving as a top adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign, aren’t illegal – though payments for endorsements would violate campaign finance laws if not disclosed. There’s no evidence that any Iowans accepted the offer or received contributions from Steyer’s campaign as compensation for their backing.
But the proposals could revive criticism that the billionaire Steyer is trying to buy his way into the White House. Several state lawmakers and political candidates said they were surprised Steyer’s campaign would think he could buy their support.
Tom Courtney, a former Democratic state senator from southeastern Iowa who’s running for reelection to his old seat, told The Associated Press the financial offer “left a bad taste in my mouth.”
Murphy didn’t respond to a request for comment. Alberto Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said Murphy was not authorized to make the offers and that the campaign leadership outside of Iowa was unaware that he was doing so until the issue was raised by The Associated Press.
Courtney declined to name Murphy as the Steyer aide who made the offer, but several other local politicians said they received similar propositions, and all confirmed the proposal came from Murphy himself. Most requested anonymity to speak freely about the issue. Another, Iowa state Rep. Karin Derry, said Murphy didn’t explicitly offer a specific dollar amount, but made it clear Derry would receive financial support if she backed Steyer.
“It was presented more as, he has provided financial support to other downballot candidates who’ve endorsed him, and could do the same for you,” she said.
Courtney described a similar interaction with Steyer’s campaign.
“Tom, I know you’re running for Senate. I’m working for Tom Steyer,” Courtney recalled hearing from the aide. “Now you know how this works. …He said, ‘you help them, and they’ll help you.”’
“I said, ‘it wouldn’t matter if you’re talking monetary, there’s no amount,’ ” Courtney continued. “I don’t do that kind of thing.”
Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said the candidate hasn’t made any individual contributions to local officials in Iowa and won’t be making any this year. In an email, Lammers said Steyer’s endorsements “are earned because of Tom’s campaign message,” and distanced the candidate from Murphy.
“Our campaign policy is clear that we will not engage in this kind of activity, and anyone who does is not speaking for the campaign or does not know our policy,” Lammers said.
The overtures do not appear to have made much of a difference for Steyer. Aside from Murphy’s support, Steyer has received the endorsement of just one Iowan since entering the race in July – former state Rep. Roger Thomas.
Thomas did not respond to phone calls, but in a statement provided by the campaign, he said that he endorsed Steyer “because he’s the outsider who can deliver for Iowans on the issues that matter most: getting corporate corruption out of our politics and putting forth a rural agenda that revitalizes communities across Iowa.”
Thomas’ endorsement was issued in October after the close of the most recent campaign finance reporting period, which ended Sept. 30. The disclosure Steyer filed offers no indication that he directly gave Thomas any money.
Experts say a campaign could violate campaign finance laws if they don’t disclose payments for endorsements.
“It’s legal if you disclose a payment for an endorsement on your campaign finance report,” said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. But, he added, “It would be unlawful if you don’t disclose it, or you disclose it but try to hide who the recipient is, or try to hide what that purpose was.”
A trio of former Ron Paul aides faced legal trouble in 2016 over similar issues during the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus campaign. Campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari were convicted in 2016 of charges related to arranging and concealing payments for then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who switched his support from then-Rep. Michele Bachmann to Paul just six days before the Iowa caucuses. Sorenson served 15 months in jail for his role in the scheme.
It’s unclear whether Murphy could face a similar legal complaint, but the issue could revive scrutiny of how Steyer is deploying his financial resources. The billionaire businessman built his fortune in banking and investment management before turning to politics, and though he’s never held public office he invested tens of millions of dollars in political activism and electoral politics before launching his presidential bid this year. Prior to his presidential run, Steyer’s most recent focus was a multi-million-dollar, pro-impeachment campaign, and as the U.S. House takes up the issue, he’s argued he’s put it on the national agenda.
Steyer has largely self-funded his presidential campaign, spending $47.6 million of his own money in the first three months since launching his bid, much of that on online fundraising and advertising. Steyer qualified for the November debate, but he remains at the back of the pack in early-state and national polls.
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By Polityk | 11/08/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sanders Backs Decriminalization of Illegal Border Crossings
Bernie Sanders is adding his support to a call by some of his fellow presidential hopefuls for decriminalizing illegal border crossings.The Vermont senator released a detailed immigration policy proposal Thursday, writing that unauthorized presence in the United States should be “a civil, not a criminal, offense.”Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called in July for repealing the criminal prohibition against crossing the border illegally, promising in her own immigration plan to immediately issue guidance to end criminal prosecutions for simple administrative immigration violations.'' Different stancesSouth Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has suggested he'd support making illegal border crossings civil offenses, but not in cases in whichfraud is involved.” Former Vice President Joe Biden also hasn’t fully backed decriminalization of illegal border crossings, saying during a July presidential debate, If you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back. It's a crime.'' FILE - Democratic presidential candidate former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro speaks during the Iowa Democratic Party's Liberty and Justice Celebration, Nov. 1, 2019, in Des Moines.In April, former Obama Housing Secretary Julian Castro became the first Democratic presidential hopeful to release a comprehensive immigration plan and to support making crossing the border illegally a civil rather than criminal offense. But Castro is winding down his presence in the key early state of New Hampshire and isn't likely to qualify for the debate later this month in Georgia. Grappling with full decriminalization could be a tough sell for Democrats after the primary, when their nominee will face voters who may disagree with President Donald Trump's hardline U.S.-Mexico border policies — he leads cheers of "Finish the wall!" at his rallies — but worry about moving too far in the other direction. The problem with decriminalizing undocumented crossings is it fulfills the Republican narrative that Democrats want open borders, and that will be an absolute killer for us in November,” said Colin Strother, a Texas Democratic strategist who lived for years along the Rio Grande. Moratorium on deportations
In Thursday’s plan, Sanders also promised to use executive orders to halt construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, put a moratorium on all deportations until current federal policy can be audited, and allow people seeking U.S. asylum to remain in the country while their claims are processed rather than being sent to Mexico or elsewhere. And he vowed to break up the Department of Homeland Security.
Sanders said he was taking back an issue that should be about humanitarianism and not be viewed through the national security prism it often has been since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — nor used to stoke racist fears for political gain, as he said Trump has done. His advisers shrugged off concerns that decriminalizing illegal border crossings may make their campaign, or those of other Democrats, seem soft on immigration.
Sanders national policy director Josh Orton said the candidate “will never waver from his commitment to a humane and rational immigration system, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans.” Strother noted that the Obama administration set records for the number of immigrants it deported from the U.S. and that Biden and other top 2020 Democrats have tried to distance themselves from that, calling it too harsh.
I think that over the years as a party, in a rush to try to satisfy the middle, we've bought into the Republican narrative and even adopted the Republican narrative a little too much,'' he said.But we can’t go too far in the other direction.”
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pence Aide Testifies at Trump Impeachment Inquiry
A foreign affairs adviser to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence — an aide who heard President Donald Trump ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation to help him politically — is testifying Thursday before the impeachment inquiry targeting Trump.Jennifer Williams arrived at the Capitol for a closed-door hearing with impeachment investigators. They are looking to learn how much Pence knew of Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic presidential rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, at a time when Trump was temporarily withholding $391 million in U.S. military aid Kyiv wanted.Williams listened in as Trump on July 25 asked Zelenskiy for “a favor” — the investigation of Biden and his son, Hunter’s, work for a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election that Trump won.In addition, Williams accompanied Pence to a meeting with Zelenskiy in Warsaw on Sept. 1 as the military aid was discussed. Pence aides, however, have said the vice president was unaware that concerns had been raised within the White House and by a whistleblower that Trump had pushed Zelenskiy in the July call for the investigation of the Bidens.Williams is one of the last witnesses to appear for questioning at a secure room in the Capitol before the Democratic-controlled impeachment inquiry starts public hearings next Wednesday.Late Wednesday, Trump denied a report that he urged Attorney General William Barr to hold a news conference clearing him of any illegal acts in the July phone call which Trump has repeatedly described as “perfect.”The Washington Post, and later The New York Times, reported that Trump made the request, which Barr declined, around the time the White House released a rough transcript of the call.The Justice Department issued a statement saying the phone call did not break any campaign finance laws, and “no further action was warranted.”According to the Post, which cited Trump advisers and people familiar with the matter, Trump has in recent weeks said he wished Barr would have held a news conference.Trump used Twitter late Wednesday to reject the Post’s reporting. He described it as “totally untrue and just another FAKE NEWS story with anonymous sources that don’t exist.”The Amazon Washington Post and three lowlife reporters, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, and Carol Leonnig, wrote another Fake News story, without any sources (pure fiction), about Bill Barr & myself. We both deny this story, which they knew before they wrote it. A garbage newspaper!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The release of Taylor’s testimony came as a high-ranking State Department official, David Hale, testified Wednesday about the ouster of America’s former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was viewed by some Trump aides as an impediment to getting Kyiv to open the investigation of the Bidens.A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from Kyiv earlier this year and dismissed from her post months ahead of the scheduled end of her tour.In the July call with Zelenskiy, Trump described Yovanovitch as “bad news.” But State Department officials had told her she had not done anything wrong. Before her dismissal, they had requested she extend her tour into 2020.Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and delegated by the president to oversee U.S. foreign relations with Ukraine, had pressed for Yovanovitch’s ouster and for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.While Hale testified, three other Trump administration officials — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, acting White House budget chief Russell Vought and State Department aide Ulrich Brechtbuhl — defied congressional demands that they testify before the impeachment inquiry led by the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees in the House of Representatives.Former National Security Adviser John Bolton gestures while speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Sept. 30, 2019.Former national security adviser John Bolton, who has said he will not testify without a subpoena, was also expected Thursday to ignore a demand that he appear for questioning.Trump has been somewhat successful in getting key officials to defy subpoenas in the rapidly expanding impeachment inquiry. But several national security and diplomatic officials, including some still on the government payroll, have told impeachment panels that Trump was at the center of efforts pressing for the Ukraine investigations to help him politically.Asking a foreign government for help in a U.S. election is against U.S. campaign laws.But Republican lawmakers defending Trump say the fact that Trump eventually released the military aid to Ukraine proves there was no reciprocal agreement with Kyiv.WATCH: What does Quid Pro Quo Mean?
Explainer Quid Pro Quo video player.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pence to File Trump’s Paperwork for New Hampshire Primary
Vice President Mike Pence is standing in for President Donald Trump to get his boss’ name on the Republican primary ballot in New Hampshire.Four years ago, Trump was among the first candidates to sign up for the primary, which he won before losing the state to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.But candidates are not required to file in person, and this time Trump is sending Pence to file his paperwork and pay the $1,000 fee. Pence will do so at the secretary of state’s office late Thursday morning.While some states are canceling their GOP primaries, Trump is expected to face at least three challengers in New Hampshire: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge Rejects Trump’s Religious Liberty Rule for Health Care Providers
A federal judge has thrown out a Trump administration rule that would have let health care providers refuse to perform abortions and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.Judge Paul Engelmayer said Wednesday that the rule was unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious. He said the rule would have led to some patients facing discrimination because hospitals and clinics that did not comply with it would lose federal dollars.Critics said gay and transgender patients were particularly at risk of being denied care.The rule was to have taken effect this month, but 23 states and cities along with Planned Parenthood and other health care providers sued to stop it.A spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department said it was studying the judge’s ruling and would not comment.The rule spun out of President Donald Trump’s promise to expand religious liberty protections under federal law.In May, HHS published what it called 30 “conscience provisions” that health care providers had to comply with if they wanted to receive federal funds.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Denies Requesting AG Barr Exonerate Him for Ukraine Call
U.S. President Donald Trump denied Wednesday that he had urged Attorney General William Barr to hold a news conference clearing him of any illegal acts in a July phone call with Ukraine’s president.The Washington Post reported that Trump made the request, which Barr declined, around the time the White House released a rough transcript of the call in which Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.The Justice Department issued a statement saying the call did not break any campaign finance laws and “no further action was warranted.”According to the Post, which cited Trump advisers and people familiar with the matter, Trump has in recent weeks said he wished Barr would have held a news conference.Trump used Twitter late Wednesday to reject the Post’s reporting. He described it as “totally untrue and just another FAKE NEWS story with anonymous sources that don’t exist.”FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump face reporters during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.The Justice Department has not commented. But a senior administration official says any report that there is tension because there was a statement but no news conference is “completely false.”A whistleblower’s concern about the July Trump-Zelenskiy phone call led to the current House impeachment inquiry into Trump and whether he withheld military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskiy publicly committed to investigating Biden for alleged corruption.House committees Wednesday released a transcript of last month’s testimony by Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor. According to the transcript, Taylor told the committees it was his “clear understanding” that Ukraine would not get military assistance Trump was withholding unless it launched investigations against Biden and the Democrats.FILE – William Taylor leaves a closed door meeting after testifying as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 22, 2019.For weeks, Trump has denied a quid pro quo arrangement with Ukraine.But Taylor testified that the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, repeatedly told him that while Trump did not see it as a quid pro quo, “I observed that, in order to move forward on the security assistance the Ukrainians were told by Ambassador Sondland that they had to pursue the investigations.”“That was my clear understanding, security assistance money would not come until (Zelenskiy) committed to pursue the investigation,” Taylor said.The release of Taylor’s testimony came as a high-ranking State Department official, David Hale, testified Wednesday about the ouster of America’s former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was viewed by some Trump aides as an impediment to getting Kyiv to open the investigation of Biden and his son Hunter.Yovanovitch aideA career diplomat, Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from Kyiv earlier this year and dismissed from her post months ahead of the scheduled end of her tour.Trump, in a late July call with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, described her as “bad news.” But State Department officials had told her she had not done anything wrong and, before her dismissal, had requested she extend her tour into 2020.Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer, had pressed for Yovanovitch’s ouster and for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.While Hale testified, three other Trump administration officials — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, acting White House budget chief Russell Vought and another State Department aide, Ulrich Brechtbuhl — defied congressional demands that they testify before the impeachment inquiry led by the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees in the House of Representatives.Trump has been somewhat successful in getting key officials to defy subpoenas and not testify in the rapidly expanding impeachment inquiry. But several national security and diplomatic officials, including some still on the government payroll, have told impeachment panels that Trump was at the center of efforts pressing for the Ukraine investigations to help him politically.It is against U.S. campaign finance laws to ask a foreign government for help in an American election.Trump has denied any wrongdoing and described his call with Zelenskiy as “perfect.” Republican lawmakers defending Trump say the fact that the military aid was released to Ukraine proves there was no reciprocal agreement with Ukraine.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Two Somali Americans Elected to City Councils in US
Two Somali American women have won seats on city councils in Minnesota and Maine, U.S. states with sizable communities from the African diaspora.Voters on Tuesday elected Nadia Mohamed for an at-large seat in St. Louis Park, a western suburb of Minneapolis, in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, and chose Safiya Khalid to represent a ward in Lewiston, in the northeastern state of Maine. Both ran as Democrats and will be the first Somali immigrants on their respective councils. Both also are 23 and are black, hijab-wearing Muslims.Their election victories represent “not only a success for Somalis and Muslims but also a great success for American values, based on diversity and multiculturalism and respect for women,” said Hashi Shafi, who heads the Somali Action Alliance. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit promotes civic engagement and leadership. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. In 2018, voters there elected Ilhan Omar to the U.S. House of Representatives, after she had served two years in the state House of Representatives. The Democrat is the first Somali American and one of the first Muslim women to serve in the U.S. Congress. Refugee backgroundLike Omar, Khalid was a child when she came to the United States. She was 7 when she and her family moved from a refugee camp in Kenya to the eastern U.S. state of New Jersey before settling in Maine. Khalid said negative comments about Islam — by President Donald Trump and by Maine’s former governor Paul LePage, among others — helped motivate her to seek office in Lewiston. As a candidate, Khalid encountered “vile abuse” by internet trolls who told her she “had no place in American government and said I should go back to where I came from,” she told VOA. For a time, she deactivated her Facebook page. But she campaigned door to door, knocking at “over 2,000 houses, asking people of different backgrounds — black, Caucasian, Asian, and of different faiths — to support me with their votes.”She won nearly 70% of the vote.Promising ‘fresh perspective’In Minnesota’s St. Louis Park, Mohamed received more than 63% of the vote.She, too, had come to the United States as a refugee whose family fled civil war in Somalia. She served for three years on the city police department’s multicultural advisory committee, helping to connect communities.As a candidate, she said being a young Muslim woman of color “would bring a fresh perspective to our city leadership. I have unique life experiences and a passion for the betterment of our city and its residents. I also know the significance of building spaces where people feel safe and accepted.”
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Sessions to Announce Run for His Old Senate Seat
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to announce Thursday that he will run for his old Senate seat in Alabama.Sessions held the Senate seat from 1997 until 2017, when he was named President Donald Trump’s first attorney general.He was forced out of office last November after repeatedly clashing with Trump.He was frequently mocked by Trump after he recused himself from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.If he wins the Republican primary set for March 3, he will face Democrat Doug Jones, who won the 2017 special election to fill Sessions’ seat.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Attacks Whistleblower Anonymity, But Won’t Utter Name
President Donald Trump is blasting the media for not reporting the name of a person who has been identified in conservative circles as the whistleblower who spurred the impeachment inquiry. Yet Trump has carefully avoided using the name himself.Exposing whistleblowers can be dicey, even for a president. For one thing, it could be a violation of federal law to identify the whistleblower. While there’s little chance Trump could face charges, revealing the name could give Democrats more impeachment fodder. It could also prompt a backlash among some Senate Republicans who have long defended whistleblowers.And, despite wanting the name to be disclosed, Trump sees some benefits to keeping it secret. The anonymity makes it easier for Trump to undermine the credibility of the person behind the complaint as well as the complaint itself, according to three officials and Republicans close to the White House not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. It also allows him to bash the media for supposedly protecting the whistleblower.In recent weeks, a name has circulated in conservative media of a man said to be the whistleblower. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday tweeted a link to a story on the Breitbart website that used the name. He also included the name in his tweet.U.S. whistleblower laws exist to protect the identity and careers of people who bring forward accusations of wrongdoing by government officials. Lawmakers in both parties have historically backed those protections. The Associated Press typically does not reveal the identity of whistleblowers.The identity of the whistleblower is almost a moot point: Much of the unnamed person’s August complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been corroborated and expanded upon by officials’ on-the-record, congressional testimony and the reconstructed, partial transcript of the call released by the White House.In a statement shortly after Trump Jr.’s tweet, the whistleblower’s attorneys warned that “Identifying any suspected name for the whistleblower will place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm.”The statement by Andrew P. Bakaj and Mark S. Zaid said that “publication or promotion of a name shows the desperation to deflect from the substance of the whistleblower complaint. It will not relieve the President of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true.”A number of Trump allies have counseled the president not to unveil the whistleblower’s identity. So in recent days Trump has shifted to a new tactic, denouncing the media for allegedly protecting the whistleblower by refusing to identify the person, allowing him to charge that the media is in cahoots with Democrats and the “deep state” — Trump opponents in the government.The strategy is reminiscent of the one Trump used during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, during which he derided the so-called deep state investigators for allegedly plotting to bring down a duly elected president.Trump, on Twitter and while talking to reporters, relentlessly painted then-FBI director James Comey, agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page as corrupt and conspiratorial. Though there’s no solid evidence that the Russia probe suffered from any improper bias at its origin, Page and Strzok, in a series of text messages, revealed their dislike of Trump, which the president pointed to as proof of a plot against him.With help from some allies, including Sen. Rand Paul at a Kentucky rally on Monday, Trump has moved to create a similar dynamic with the whistleblower. Without providing evidence, Trump has painted the whistleblower as a liberal “Never Trumper” and held up the person’s anonymity — essential for protection — as some sort of nefarious proof of a conspiracy with Democrats.Much like his scattershot efforts to muddle the narrative of the Mueller probe, often by questioning the integrity and process of the investigation itself rather than the facts, Trump has been looking to plant the seed of doubt about the Ukraine matter with both his base and the GOP senators who could decide his fate in an impeachment trial, according to the officials and Republicans.But if he identified the supposed whistleblower, Trump could risk antagonizing some of those same senators, who believe whistleblowers are important for rooting out corruption. Advocates for whistleblowers warn that stripping anonymity from the person who made the Ukraine complaint would make people across the government more reluctant to speak up about wrongdoing.In the context of an investigation, someone who names or retaliates against a whistleblower could be prosecuted for obstructing an investigation or harassing a witness, said Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project.But whistleblowers in the intelligence community, like the one who reported the Ukraine call, lack many of the protections provided to their counterparts elsewhere in the government. “There are some rights on paper, but in reality they are extremely weak,” Devine said.In other parts of the government, whistleblowers can take claims they have been retaliated against to independent administrative agencies and, potentially, federal courts. In the intelligence agencies, complaints are handled internally.“The way you do that is by going back to the agency that retaliated against you to ask them to change their minds,” Devine said. There is a right of appeal to the inspector general, whose work can be reviewed a panel of auditors he appoints, he said.Stephen Kohn, chairman of the board of the National Whistleblower Center, said it’s troubling that prospects for protecting the whistleblower really depend on Trump.“The only guarantee here is to hope the president does his job” and prevents retaliation against him in the first place, Kohn said.
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By Polityk | 11/07/2019 | Повідомлення, Політика
